The Rebirth of Congress Avenue

By John T. Davis | Photos by jeremiah alvarado & Cody Hamilton

Published: December 2, 2016

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But making way for the new has often meant the painful loss of the old: Adios, Las Manitas, whose bones are interred beneath the JW Marriott. So long, Ted’s Greek Corner and its neighbor, Oscar Snowden (The Big O!), who sold appliances to everyone in Austin, it seemed. Farewell to Woolworth’s, which Nanci Griffith sang about in “Love At the Five and Dime.” Sayonara, Vulcan Gas Company, which in its original location was the precursor to the equally defunct Armadillo World Headquarters... You get the idea.

Sixth and Congress has been the historic crossroads of Austin since the city’s inception, but new hubs of commerce and interaction are evolving. The redevelopment of Second Street, along with the construction of the giant JW Marriott hotel with its curbside bars and restaurants and the equally outsized Austonian condo tower, has “activated” (one of urban planners’ favorite words) the lower end of Congress. It is an effort that will only be enhanced by the projected 2017 completion of the Fareground, a unique privately funded venture that reimagines an underused sunken plaza adjacent to the One Eleven office building as an urban crossroads featuring an array of restaurants, green space and other amenities.

“It’s gonna be an absolute game-changer for downtown,” asserts Daniel Woodroffe, whose firm dwg. is in charge of landscaping the project. “It’s about re-engaging people with open space that was lost. It’s a quasi, public-private park on Congress Avenue for both the office workers (in One Eleven) and the public.”

“When I look at Congress Avenue, I see a place for people to go to and not through,” says Molly Alexander, the executive vice-president for the DAA. “You have the museums, the lake and the Capitol,” she continues. “How do you connect these experiences together and make it a place for people to come to?” Alexander points to the efforts the alliance has made to tie Congress Avenue into a coherent whole, including installing the 167 trees that line the street with decorative lighting, putting in outdoor planters, light pole banners and a seasonal street market and making the pocket park initiative.

It is a vision that has not always been universally embraced. Enhancing the avenue for pedestrians has meant sacrificing parking spaces, a trade-off that understandably angers Kruger, who describes himself as “the nemesis of the DAA.”

He remembers coming into the shop to wrap gifts and wait on customers during the holiday season since he was a teenager, and he’s seen the ebb and flow of fortune on the avenue over the decades. He applauds the new condos and apartments but thinks the city and the DAA have de-prioritized the needs of retailers, especially when it comes to parking.

“The city has made it harder for people to drive downtown and find parking [but] the reality is, in Texas, people still get in their cars and go where they want to go,” he says. “Unfortunately [in 2013], the city, in its infinite wisdom, decided to repeal the ordinance, saying if you build so many square feet you have to have so many parking spaces. They said, no, let’s let them build and we’ll figure out parking later. But they’ve never finished that second piece of the puzzle.”